Fort Hood shooting: Army names shooter, says he had mental illness

April 04, 2014|Tribune staff and wire reports

The main gate at the U.S. Army post at Fort Hood, Texas. (U.S. Army)

The commander of the Fort Hood Army base in Texas on Thursday identified the soldier suspected of shooting dead three people and wounding 16 on Wednesday as Ivan Lopez, 34, and said he was originally from Puerto Rico.

Lieutenant General Mark Milley told reporters that Lopez's medical history indicated he was in an unstable psychological condition and there was a strong indication he had been in an altercation with another soldier prior to the shooting.

But he said there was no indication the shooter, who committed suicide by shooting himself in the head, had been targeting specific people.

No motive was given for the rampage, in what was the second mass shooting in five years at one of the largest military bases in the United States, raising questions about security at such installations. Officials have so far ruled out terrorism.

He is suspected of smuggling a recently purchased Smith & Wesson .45 caliber pistol on to the base, which was used in the shootings.

U.S. Army Secretary John McHugh said the soldier, who joined the service in 2008, had served two tours of duty abroad, including four months in Iraq in 2011. He had no direct involvement in combat and had not been wounded.

"He was undergoing a variety of treatment and diagnoses for mental health conditions, ranging from depression to anxiety to some sleep disturbance. He was prescribed a number of drugs to address those, including Ambien," McHugh told a U.S. Senate committee hearing.

Lopez served in the Puerto Rico National Guard from January, 1999 to 2009, in an infantry unit and as a band member, both military combat training assignments; he also had a six-month stint as part of an observation mission in the Sinai, Egypt, in 2006, Davis said.

At the modest blue-and-gray apartment building in Killeen where Lopez lived with his wife and 2-year-old daughter, American flags flew and "Welcome home" signs adorned the walls of a place favored by soldiers rotating through the base.

Army chaplains visited the family on Thursday.

Shaneice Banks, 21, a self-described Army wife, was with Lopez's wife when news of the shooting broke.

"She heard her husband's name on the news and she just lost it," Banks told Reuters.

Another neighbor, Mahogoney Jones, 21, said the wife was in a state of panic. "She's calling and calling her husband because she feels something is wrong. She kept screaming 'No answer! No answer!'".

Jones said she last saw Lopez when he came home for lunch on the day of the shooting.

"He was calm. He petted my dog and then went back to base," she said.

Three of the soldiers listed in critical condition were showing signs of improvement and their condition was upgraded to serious, according to Scott & White Hospital in Temple. Five patients were discharged.

Among those killed was 37-year-old Army Sergeant Timothy Owens, a recently-married native of Effingham, Ill.

One of the injured was identified by his family via Twitter as Major Patrick Miller of New York. Miller, from Allegany, joined the U.S. Army after graduating from St. Bonaventure University in 2003, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said in a statement.

"Our thoughts right now in many ways are with the families at Fort Hood. These are folks who make such extraordinary sacrifices for us each and every day for our freedom," President Barack Obama said at a White House event honoring U.S. athletes from the Sochi Olympics and Paralympics.

Military families at Fort Hood, a base still reeling from the 2009 attack when an Army psychiatrist killed 13 people and wounded 32 others, appeared shaken on Thursday.

There are about 45,000 soldiers and airmen assigned to the 335-square-mile (870-square-km) base along with nearly 10,000 civilian employees, according to Fort Hood.

Lopez, who arrived at Fort Hood in February, had "self-reported" a traumatic brain injury after returning from Iraq but was never wounded in action, said Fort Hood commanding officer Lieutenant General Mark Milley.

Before the shooting, he was being evaluated for PTSD, or post traumatic stress disorder.

It was not clear what spurred the gunman to enter two base buildings and open fire on fellow soldiers at about 4 p.m. local time on Wednesday.

The shooter walked into one of the unit buildings, opened fire, then got into a vehicle and fired from there. He then went into another building and opened fire again, until he was engaged by Fort Hood law enforcement officers, Milley said.

When confronted by a female military police officer in a parking lot, he shot himself with his semi-automatic weapon.

The incident is the third shooting at a military base in the United States in about six months that, along with a series of shootings in schools and malls, has sparked a national debate over gun violence.

President Obama was "heartbroken" that another shooting had occurred, and said the incident "reopens the pain of what happened at Fort Hood five years ago.

The latest violence highlights the U.S. military's so-far frustrated efforts to secure its bases from potential shooters, who appear to target the facilities.

Fort Hood, a base from which soldiers prepare to deploy to Iraq and Afghanistan, had overhauled its security to better deal with potential "insider threats" after the 2009 rampage, when an Army psychiatrist killed 13 people and wounded 32 others.

Retired Army Sergeant Alonzo Lunsford, who was shot multiple times in the 2009 incident, said the military has not done enough to treat the mental scars of those who have served in combat regions.

"The military needs to go ahead and stop talking about the problem and talking about what we're going to do. Just do it," Lunsford said.